


Promellian Mystery

by NihilusShadow



Series: Star Trek Online - Promellian Mystery [1]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek Online
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-23
Updated: 2018-03-23
Packaged: 2019-04-06 20:03:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14064522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NihilusShadow/pseuds/NihilusShadow
Summary: One thousand years ago the Promellian and Menthar civilizations fought a bloody war which ended with the two power's mutual destruction. Today archaeological researchers discover new information on the Promellian homeworld which suggests the Promellian and Menthar people weren't the only combatants in this ancient conflict.





	Promellian Mystery

The tall stack of PADDs which had formally been sitting on Treles Nara's desk came to a loud crash on the floor. Treles had spent hours sifting through her collection of data on the Promellian-Menthar War and found her good mood quickly replaced with annoyance. Normally she wasn't prone to such clumsiness, but recently she found herself distracted by news of intact memory coils found on the former Promellian homeworld. If data could successfully be pulled from the coils, it could shed a whole new light on the long dead race.  
  
Treles reached down to pick up the fallen PADDs when she heard the door chime.  "Come in." she said resting a handful of PADDs on the table.  When the doors parted, an elderly Efrosian male entered her office.  She had come to know Fin Te-Nahreii over the last few years working at the Daystrom Institute of Archaeology. Except for Ambassador Picard, Fin was the only other person she met who shared her interest in the now extinct Promellian and Menthar races. Very few archaeologists today had time to study them since the Iconians and their Dyson Spheres had become all the rage these days.  
  
The doors closed with a quiet hiss as Fin stepped into the room. "Did I catch you at a bad time?" Treles bent over and picked up another handful of PADDs and added them to the new stack on her desk.  
  
"No, you're fine," she said with a note of exhaustion in her voice. "I'm just having an unusually clumsy day."  Treles smiled when she noticed Fin carrying a satchel with what she hoped was information pertaining to the Promellian memory coils.  "I hope you're carrying good news."  
  
"You could say that," he said as he placed the satchel on the table. He reached inside and pulled out a PADD, activating it. He glanced at the information and then handed it to Treles. "Ten memory coils were found intact on Promellias IV. These are the first six we've been able to decode so far."  
  
Treles took the PADD and skimmed through the first page. "Interesting. Early estimates pegged Promellias III as their likely homeworld."  
  
"I know, I was just as surprised as you are.  But that's not the most interesting part. Take a look at the next PADD." Treles swapped PADDs and nearly stood and shouted with excitement at what she read.  
  
"Are these personal logs from before the Promellian-Menthar War?"  
  
"I had a feeling you'd be excited."  
  
"Excited is an understatement.  Fin, everything we know about the Promellians comes from what we learned of their war with the Menthar.  We know so little of their civilization before hostilities."  
  
"I know, but these still only contain information from a military perspective.  I read a handful of them and they only pre-date the war by about eight months as well."  Treles took a quick look at the other PADDs and then returned to the first one.  
  
"Any pre-war information is good, no matter how little there might be."  
  
Little information was right. While the logs spanned a period of eight months, they only contained a handful of logs and most of them were incomplete.  These would have to do for now until the rest of the logs could be translated.  Treles reached into her desk and pulled out her personal PADD and downloaded all of Fin's information to it.  With all the information condensed to a single PADD, she began to read through the information.  
  
"Fascinating. According to these logs the Promellian and Menthar jointly patrolled areas of space together.  The Menthar even provided the Promellian navy with star charts to help further their exploration of space. Are we sure this data comes from eight months before the war?"  
  
"The Vulcan who translated them was 97.3% positive."  
  
"The way they speak of the Menthar... it's like there isn't any animosity between them at all. It's hard to believe that in eight months time, they will be involved in a war so devastating it destroys both sides."  
  
"It's not that unreasonable Treles.  The Federation and the Klingon Empire are on again off again friends all the time. That information comes from a handful of commanders and there is no guarantee their own personal opinion was shared by the rest of their people.  I bear no ill will towards the Klingons, but those feelings didn't prevent the war.  All it takes is a little disagreement and suddenly we're hurling torpedoes at one another."  
  
"Never like this.  The Federation has fought the Empire numerous times but these people annihilated each other." Treles stood and began walking around her office. "Something really bad must have happened to turn them against each other in such a way."  
  
"Perhaps the Promellians and Menthar didn't have Organians forcing them to listen to each other?"  Fin was right. The Federation and Klingon Empire could very well have destroyed each other, had the Organians not forced both sides into a peace treaty. They didn't end the conflict entirely, but their involvement was the first step towards eventual peace. Without the Organians the Federation and the Klingon Empire could have gone the way of the Promellians and Menthar. That was a scary thought.  
  
Still, Treles couldn't help but think something else might have been responsible for their sudden desire to annihilate each other. Unlike the Federation and Klingon Empire who never got along from the start, the Promellians and Menthar appeared to be friendly. If someone like the Organians could push civilizations towards peace, then couldn't they also push them to war? Treles continued reading.  
  
"Four months before the war this commander traded supplies with a Menthar cruiser.  The commander of the Menthar vessel warned the Promellians of a charged plasma field in a nearby system. The Promellian commander decided that his ship would enter the system and investigate.  When they arrived they detected a large quantity of Verteron particles... but the rest of the log is missing."   
  
Treles looked up from the PADD and glanced at Fin with excitement. "Do you know what this means?"  
  
"No, not really." Fin answered honestly.  Treles walked over to her wall monitor and started browsing through star charts.  
  
"What spacial anomaly do we know of that contains large quantities of Verteron particles and sits inside a charged plasma field?" Treles' monitor stopped cycling through star systems and displayed what she was looking for.  Fin stood up and took a closer look at what she displayed.  
  
"The Bajor system?  You think the Promellians detected the Bajoran Wormhole?"  
  
"I believe so yes.  The next set of logs comes from another Promellian ship who claims that the first vessel had vanished for several days. After she was discovered near this system her commander claimed that she had been disabled by a Menthar vessel while patrolling this system. He claimed that the Menthar ambushed him in the plasma field."  
  
"That doesn't make any sense.  You said the Menthar warned him about the plasma field. How could they have been ambushed if the Menthar told them not to go near it?  Unless he wanted him to stay away from the field so that he wouldn't discover the hidden fleet."  
  
"No. If they stumbled across a hidden fleet of ships wouldn't they have been destroyed?" Fin scratched his head and shrugged.  
  
"Maybe."  
  
"The commander of the search party mentions that it was a Menthar vessel who pointed them in this direction.  No other Menthar vessels were detected and while the missing Promellian cruiser was found damaged by weapons fire, there was no indication that it was caused by Menthar weaponry."  
  
"So you think they were damaged by something else?  An Ion Storm maybe?"  
  
"If the damage was caused by an Ion Storm, then why would they say they were attacked? And why were they missing? The Menthar and Promellians failed to detect the vessel for several days until she randomly appeared adrift in space."  
  
"If they discovered the wormhole, they could have been pulled inside. That would explain their disappearance."  
  
"But not their damage. The report says there were clear signs of battle damage."  
  
Fin began to wander around the room in deep thought for several minutes. When Fin wandered it was best not to disturb him and keep quiet. Captain Paris once described it as 'genius at work'. The Captain was always full of human colloquialisms. "What about the Hur'q?" Fin finally asked.  
  
"Hur'q?  That's Klingon for outsider."  Fin nodded and stopped pacing.  
  
"That's correct.  It was also a term given to a mysterious race which assaulted the Klingon homeworld a thousand years ago.  Before the Dominion War it was discovered that the Hur'q had come from the Gamma Quadrant." Treles looked up the Hur'q on her computer and read what little information they had on them.  
  
"You think that these Hur'q people damaged the Promellian ship after she entered the Gamma Quadrant?  But why would they blame the attack on the Menthar?  Why didn't they mention the wormhole or their passage through it?"  
  
"I don't know.  We know just as little about the Gamma Quadrant at that time as we do the Promellians.  We do know the Hur'q would pass through that area of space around this time and make their way to the Beta Quadrant."  
  
"There is no mention of any mysterious race being spotted by either the Promellians or the Menthar during the war."  
  
"What happened after the commander returned home?" Fin asked. Treles returned to the PADD and skimmed through it.  
  
"The commander of the second ship mentions that there was something different about the crew after they were found. The commanders had known each other for years but there was something odd about him following his disappearance. Once the crews returned to Promellias IV, there was an inquiry and the ship commander continued to lay blame on the Menthar. The Promellian Security Council seemed to agree with the Menthar on the lack of evidence."  
  
"And yet they go to war in a matter of months."  
  
"Weeks.  It was reported that the Promellian Sovereign agreed there was no evidence to support the claim, but the next morning it was reported that the Sovereign was acting strangely."  
  
"How strangely?"  Treles looked through the PADD but frowned.  
  
"It doesn't say.  The report is incomplete, but it does say that the Sovereign went from dismissing the claims to suddenly calling their attack an act of war."  Fin returned to his wandering. Treles looked over the PADD again in silence while Fin remained deep in thought for several long minutes.  Treles nearly jumped when he finally spoke.  
  
"You think someone or something pushed the Promellians to war. What if they encountered someone else, other than the Hur'q?"  He asked. Treles didn't know where he was going with this.  
  
"I agree something must have happened for them to declare war, but who else could they have run into? The Bajorans and Cardassians couldn't have done that kind of damage to a Promellian cruiser."  
  
"No, I mean what if someone other than the Hur'q in the Gamma Quadrant did this? The Promellians disappeared for several days. Then when they reappear they blame the attack on an ally, which no evidence supports. Their leadership agrees there is a lack of evidence but then suddenly changes his tune the next morning." Fin looked at Treles and smiled.  
  
"Where are you going with this?"  She asked. Fin continued to smile as he paced about the room.  
  
"What if the crew was acting differently because they weren't the same crew that entered the wormhole?"  
  
"You mean like they were altered?  The Prophets are known to have altered people's personalities in the past."  
  
"No!" Fin shouted.  It wasn't often Treles saw Fin get this excited but she was happy to see it. Fin continued. "What species native to the Gamma Quadrant do we know has the ability to replace an individual?  Who can infiltrate the government and convince them to wage war against their neighbors?"  Treles was finally catching on.  
  
"The Dominion?  You think they replaced the commander, or the entire crew and then attempted to start a war between the Promellians and Menthar?  Why would they do that?"  
  
"Why did they trick the Klingons into attacking Cardassia?  Why did they turn the Federation and Klingon Empire against each other?"  This time it was Treles who began to wander around the room.  
  
"They wanted to destabilize the Alpha Quadrant. But they never invaded this side of the Galaxy after the Promellian-Menthar war." She said.  
  
"True, but it was two less Alpha Quadrant powers to deal with."  Treles thought about Fin's idea. She did feel as if something or someone had pushed the Promellians into war with the Menthar. The Dominion were certainly capable of doing just that. It was a great theory, but they had no real proof to support it.  
  
"Hopefully the rest of those coils can be translated."  Fin placed his PADDs back into his satchel and glanced at the door.  
  
"Care to ride with me back to Jupiter Station?"  Treles went into her room and came back with a backpack poorly stuffed with random attire.  
  
"Let's go." She said with a smile and the two proceeded on their way.


End file.
